Amsterdam Knowledge Capital Where ICT and business meet Knowledge Capital Where ICT and business meet

1 Contents

Introduction 5

1 Knowledge Capital Amsterdam 7 Knowledge Clusters International Orientation Infrastructure Business and Financial Services Knowledge Workers

2 Amsterdam: ICT Capital 13 ICT in each Sector ICT Infrastructure Creative Amsterdam ICT Services and the Dutch

3 ICT Research and Development 22 University of Amsterdam VU University CWI SARA: ICT Innovation

4 Amsterdam: City of ICT Events 35 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) PicNic Cross Media Week Other Events

5 Amsterdam: Location for Business 36 Amsterdam: ICT and Business Science Park Amsterdam: ICT, Research and Education Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: ICT and mobility Other Locations

6 More information 43

Colophon 44

2 3 Introduction

Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is an excellent business location. This brochure brings together the key facts and fi gures about the city as a knowledge and business centre, with the focus squarely on ICT. While Amsterdam is not the only city dedicated to building a solid base in the knowledge economy, it never- theless has assets that are diffi cult for its European rivals to match. Over the next few pages, you’ll discover the highlights of Amsterdam’s ICT strengths. We hope that you’ll enjoy getting to know Amsterdam, the knowledge capital.

An Inspiring City intellectual and artistic climate. Amsterdam has many attractions, Amsterdam has a strong tradi- Among the city’s most famous most of which are within walking tion as a city of inspiration. It was natives are the scholars Spinoza distance of each other. Just one already leading the way in trade and Grotius. Amsterdam was example is the Van Gogh Museum, and creativity by the end of the also home to great artists like devoted to one of the world’s Middle Ages. The city may be Rembrandt. An interesting fact best-loved painters. And of course, relatively small in size, but that that speaks volumes: half of all of the Rijksmuseum, which displays didn’t stop it becoming one of the the books published in the world works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and world’s most powerful cities. Down in the 17th century came from the other Dutch masters. The city is the ages, Amsterdam has always Netherlands. also home to the Concertgebouw been a centre for global trade and Orchestra, the Dutch National manufacturing. In fact, in the 17th When people talk about Amster- Ballet and the Netherlands Opera. century, the Netherlands (under dam, they often mean the historic the leadership of Amsterdam) was city centre, which is indeed a mar- The entire historic city centre is an economic giant. Back then, the vellous place. But new and exciting itself one enormous attraction Netherlands occupied a position economic, cultural and real-estate – packed with graceful and his- comparable to that of the United developments are now happen- toric buildings, picturesque canals, States today. ing all over the city – often in the elegant bridges, world-class muse- lesser-known parts of town – and in ums, and a wealth of art galleries, In the 17th century, for example, the wider Amsterdam Metropolitan shops, restaurants, English-lan- the Netherlands had half of the Area. guage movie theatres and other world’s merchant ships, as well entertainment venues. as the world’s biggest navy. The International Orientation Amsterdam Stock Exchange was Amsterdam has a strong interna- Amsterdam invites and welcomes founded way back in 1602. In fact, tional orientation. It is an open, you as a visitor and a business the world’s very fi rst shares were welcoming city with its sights fi rmly partner. issued in Amsterdam, in 1606. The fi xed on the future. Local residents Netherlands had overseas pos- hail from all corners of the world. sessions on four continents – from In fact, almost half of the local Indonesia in Asia, all the way to population has its roots in foreign New York City (then known as New countries. Most of the popula- Amsterdam) in North America. tion can speak English. Moreover, Amsterdam also attracts millions of Intellectual and Artistic Riches foreign tourists. Indeed, the city is On top of this, Amsterdam has now Europe’s fi fth-biggest tourist long been blessed with a rich destination.

4 5 1 Knowledge Capital Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the city of the philoso- Nowadays, the applications have to the most advanced GPS appli- pher Spinoza (1632-1677), was also changed, but Amsterdam is still in cations, it’s all happening here in the city of Jan van der Heyden – the the top league of science. From Amsterdam. ‘Dutch Leonardo da Vinci’. In 1672, complex grid technology to the fi rst Van der Heyden invented the hose transatlantic lambda connection, and Knowledge Clusters fi re extinguisher, a hydraulic pump from computer based HIV-simulation There are still discoveries to be made which achieved a constant pressure. His idea for street lighting using oil lamps found a ready market, and was Figure 1 soon found everywhere from Paris Amsterdam’s wide diversity of knowledge: the main knowledge-intensive clusters by to the Japanese island of Deshima. location (Source: O+S/AIM)

• ICT and new media • University • Arts • Financial institutions • Higher education (professional) • Life sciences • Media

6 7 Stockholm 2.00

Copenhagen 1.20 Dublin 1.40

Berlin 1.20 London 1.10 Brussels 0.40

Frankfurt 1.20

Paris 1.05

Geneva 1.30 Milan 1.45

Barcelona 2.20 Madrid 2.35

Figure 2 Figure 3 The fi gure above shows the international partnerships of the Amsterdam universities Travel times to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, in hours and minutes (Source: KLM) and knowledge to be acquired in cooperation between the city coun- business solutions. The Netherlands International Orientation has been clear to Amsterdammers Infrastructure Amsterdam. ‘Knowledge is power’, cil, businesses, academia and the holds a top ten position in the One of the key reasons for the for centuries. Amsterdam is a multi-purpose hub, according to the familiar aphorism. remaining ‘knowledge clusters’ (see INSEAD list of the world’s most inno- economic and scientifi c success of This international focus is a key and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is Yet knowledge alone is no longer fi g. 1) to make this knowledge acces- vative countries. Amsterdam over the last fi ve centu- characteristic of the city’s research one of the largest airports in Europe. enough: in the 21st century, it is the sible and to commercialise it. ries is its international orientation. institutes, which have always fi gured Schiphol employs around 58,000 development, exchange, application All of this is made possible by the Amsterdam is the most international prominently in international networks people, and 42.5 million travellers and commercialisation of knowledge The strength of Knowledge Capital presence of a good supply of knowl- city in the world. Its inhabitants in all types of fi eld. This results in all pass through the airport every year. that spell success for economic Amsterdam is based on its variety edge workers, an international ori- include the world record of 177 dif- kinds of exchange programmes for There are connections to all the regions. Today, any knowledge of research fi elds and multi-discipli- entation, and excellent physical and ferent nationalities, and there are students, but also in extended scien- world’s regions, and yet the city cen- capital worthy of the name needs nary approach to current scientifi c technological infrastructure. A broad companies from all over the world tifi c networks with their crystallisation tre is only 20 minutes away. more than knowledge-developing challenges. This results in a good range of facilitating companies is based in the region. When Thomas point in Amsterdam. universities. It must also have close climate for innovation with regard to another essential factor. Friedman argues that The World is Amsterdam also has excellent Flat, he is noticing something that international train connections to

8 9 • 200 Jobs • 2,000 Jobs share of employment:

much lower than average

Figure 4 lower than average Knowledge intensive employment in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: people working at fi nancial institutions and in business services, higher professional higher than average education and scientifi c education, ICT and new media and the creative industries (Source: O+S/LISA) much higher than average

Germany and (as of 2008) a high- Knowledge Workers In the next chapter, we’ll focus on speed line to Brussels and Paris. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area the position of ICT in the region of Furthermore, a network of roads and has 2.2 million inhabitants, two uni- Amsterdam. You shall see that Dutch waterways links the region to the rest versities, six professional universities, people have ICT in their blood, mak- of Europe. Finally, Amsterdam also two academic hospitals, 40 indepen- ing Amsterdam a true ICT capital and has an innovative port: the fi rst in the dent research institutes, and over a natural, and accessible, gateway to world to have a covered terminal and 100,000 students in higher educa- Europe. a container terminal where tranship- tion. ments can be loaded on one side, and unloaded on the other. The city offers high-tech companies a large pool of highly educated Business and Financial Services and well-trained professionals. Of Some of the largest fi nancial institu- the people working in Amsterdam, tions in the world, plus an assortment 44% have been in higher education. of supporting service agencies, have Knowledge-intensive businesses grouped themselves in Amsterdam’s account for 330,000 jobs, amounting Zuidas area. Of the 24 companies to one-third of total employment in that determine the AEX, 15 are the region. The academic environ- located here. For this reason, it is ment is international, with English as the prime place in the Netherlands the classroom language. Scientists for internationally oriented compa- and technicians have extensive job nies to base their headquarters, with opportunities in the region, both in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol practi- research institutes and with innova- cally on the corner and international tive companies. train connections a short stroll away.

10 11 2 Amsterdam: ICT Capital

In the Amsterdam area, ICT compa- structure, the city can offer an edu- Netherlands is the world’s number nies can fi nd everything that they cated and multilingual workforce. nine economy – and if you count need for business success. Because Another factor in the city’s favour is Dutch-speaking Belgium, it rises to in addition to its solid digital infra- the sizeable Dutch home market: the number seven. Thanks to its history

Figure 5 ICT in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

Content

Services

Hardware

33.000

16.500

3.300

12 13 Amsterdam-Noord UPC KPN Capgemini Centrum Oracie Ahold Atos Orgini TomTom Getronics Zeeburg

Lost Boys Oud-Zuid Oost-

Infosys TATA Cognu Zant IBM Accenture Google Logica CM ZuiderAmstel

Adobe

Zuid-oost Cisco Microsoft Wipro

Figure 6 of internationalism, Amsterdam is But the wider network (from small Figure 7 ICT in Amsterdam a logical choice for many foreign innovative companies to a sizeable Lee Feldman Blast Radius Top 20 ICT companies in Amsterdam companies seeking to establish creative sector) is also a major rea- Chief Creative Offi cer metropolitan area themselves in Europe. This also son why people choose Amsterdam, applies to research: Dutch research on account of its pre-eminence as a Content institutes are generally found at the place where new services and tech- ‘When Blast Radius started working for clients in Europe, Amsterdam heart of international research fi elds, nologies can easily emerge. Think for was on the top of our list. Besides the practical, including the ability to Services frequently forming a crystallisation example of TomTom’s navigation sys- be one hour from all of our clients in Europe, there are many other rea- point for knowledge. tems, Endemol’s interactive TV and sons. Hardware KPN’s mobile applications. A wide range of companies com- The city was built for commerce, and has a deep-rooted sense of net- 8.000 prise the Amsterdam ICT sector. All ICT in each Sector working. For us this means an environment ripe for new business ideas the big international companies are From retail to food, and from logis- to happen. Amsterdam attracts a vast amount of well-trained creative 4.000 represented in the city: Microsoft, tics to utilities, banking, and life sci- minds in all disciplines. There is a sense of experimentation, a willing- Google, IBM, Cisco, HP, TomTom, ences, ICT is part of every industry. ness to take risks. You notice this in the architecture and in the new 800 Accenture, Tata, Wipro and Infosys. In almost all big companies, the ways of communication. There are several reasons why these emphasis is on developments in the The people we hire have this spirit of experimentation ingrained, which international companies are suc- fi eld of ICT. Large Dutch insurers and helps us bring new ideas to our clients.’ cessful in Amsterdam. An important banks such as ING and Rabobank are factor is the presence of the head highly progressive in their ICT-based Blast Radius is a digital marketing agency with its European head- offi ces of many multinationals, services – a recent example being quarters in Amsterdam since 2000. including ING, ABN AMRO, Philips, mobile banking. Moreover, Dutch Akzo, Ahold and Heineken, which businesses have been early adaptors www.blastradius.com together make up a large market for in outsourcing their ICT activities. service providers. Companies like Heineken, Shell,

14 15 TransLight/10gb NorthernLight Helsinki 2.5gb Oslo GLORIAD/622mb GLORIAD/622mb Surfnet/10gb Khabarousk ASnet/2.5gb Stockholm Moscow UKLight/10gb Copenhagen 155mb JGN II/10gb CA*net4-North 10gb Amsterdam CESnet/10gb Beijing Prague Calgory Abilene-HOPI/10gb London GLORIAD-CSTnet GLORIAD-KREOnet2/10gb GLORIAD-KREOnet2- 2.5gb Surfnet/20gb TaiwanLight-AARNet/10gb CA*net4- Geneva IEEAF/10gb South/20gb Winnipeg IEEAF/10gb GLORIAD-KREOnet HEPnet/10gb Vancouver CAVEEwave/10gb Montreal 10gb Daejeon Surfnet/10gb Tokyo TransPAC2/10gb Denver Toronto CSTnet-NICT Seatle Kansas TransLight/10gb 1gb TransPAC2 National City New York 2.5gb Lambda Pittsburg GLORIAD/622mb Hong Kong TaiwanLight/2.5gb Tera ESnel- Rail UltraScience Grid Chicago CA*net4/10gb CSTnet-ASnet Taipei Net/20gb SDN/10gb Washington 1gb NCSA DC Sunnyvale Indiapolis US LHCnet/10gb TaiwanLight/2gb PacificWave/10gb Oak Ridge Raleigh Los Angeles US LHCnet/10gb Atlanta UltraLight/10gb GLORIAD-CSnet/2.5gb Austin Jacksonville San Diego AtlanticWave/10gb ASnet/2.5gb WHREN-LILA/1gb Baton Rouge Tijuana HOPI 10gb Houston Miami

Honolulu AARnet/2x10gb

Mauna Kea WHREN-LILA/2.5gb

AARnet/2x10gb

Sao Paolo

Sydney

Figure 8 computer Huygens, the academic INEC, the International Network of nal broadcasters publish high-quality to the localisation of games for the net. This means that every Dutch Amsterdam Netherlight: glassfi bre con- network SURFnet, and the virtual E-Communities. This is the organisa- live content; and advertisers develop international market. person is aware of the online possi- nections reality facility, the CAVE™. Along tion of the most advanced broadband their own themed digital channels. In the wake of all this new develop- bilities of the modern world. with the Amsterdam Internet Exchan- cities in the world. ment, numerous new services are Telebanking, mobile e-mail and navi- ge (AMS-IX), SARA is one of the The games sector grows by about evolving in the fi eld of technical sup- gation systems have become com- Fortis, ING and ABN AMRO have world’s largest Internet hubs. Creative Amsterdam 10% every year, and includes interna- port, hosting, (international) rights monplace. From several research largely outsourced their ICT depart- Amsterdam is also working on the Amsterdam has developed in the fi eld tionally operating companies such as and marketing. Amsterdam has a studies, it is clear that the Netherlands ments to specialised companies. ‘Glass to the Home’ project, bring- of new media to become an interna- Guerilla Games (a developer of Play- lively e-culture and with international scores extremely highly on E-readi- ing fi bre-optic networks to the living tional testing ground for new interac- station games) and the Spillgroup, events such as IBC, and the cross media ness* and this is not about to change ICT Infrastructure room of every citizen. This, plus the tive formats and cross-media produc- which develops games and online week PicNic, it makes an inspiring in the coming years. Infact the city is Amsterdam has a superb ICT infra- city-wide seamless WiMax network, tion techniques. The content industry games portals worldwide. Moreover, environment for multimedia talent. working hard on its fi bre-optic net- structure: the European heart of means that all the ICT infrastructure is currently more active than ever, the application of gaming is increas- work (the ‘Glass to the Home’ project), information technology can be found facilities a company needs are readily offering all sorts of possibilties for ing strongly in other sectors (such as ICT Services and the Dutch and Amsterdam has the fi rst seam- on the ring road. SARA Computing available. creative (and business) talent. For- education, advertising, and logistics). In the Netherlands, and in Amster-dam less WiMax network in Europe. and Networking Services is located mats developed for television become With its internatioanal orientation, in particular, practically 100% of the here, along with the national super- Amsterdam is an active member of successful as mobile games; traditio- Amsterdam is eminently well suited population has access to the Inter- * IBM 2006

16 17 Girish Ramachandran, managing Director of TATA consulting Europe

With a view of the corporate buildings of ABN AMRO and ING banks, and a little further away are the shin- ing brand names of Philips and banking and insurance group Fortis he says:

“For us it is strategically important to be located close to our clients. We started out as an IT applications developer, but today we have evolved into an IT serv- ices provider with a full service concept. The largest part of our turnover comes from advising our custom- ers on how they can further improve the effi ciency of their businesses, and from developing and implement- ing solutions to support this. Our clients require us to be able to give them direct support, and to be familiar with their markets and working environments. This is why we chose Amsterdam. Not only are most of the large European companies based or represented here, it’s also a good base from where to better serve the European continental market”

www.tcs.com

18 19 Andrew Lockhart Cisco Systems Vice President Northern Europe

“Amsterdam and the Netherlands offered clear advantages over other European locations we investigated. The Netherlands has a long tradition of trading and commerce. That commercial spirit can be seen in invest- ments in the IT infrastructure around Amsterdam. The talented people we hire benefi t from such a quality working (and playing) environment. “The Dutch are open to innovation. The success of our academy in Amsterdam says a lot about the openness of the local educational system to new ways of learning and working, such as Internet technology. It allows us to invest in the future skill base, which is important, because Amsterdam will be one of our biggest offi ces, with extensive e-learning facilities, acting as a showcase for the latest Cisco technologies.”

Cisco Systems built its fi rst corporate campus outside the US for its European operations, including logistics and ordering, in Amsterdam.

www.cisco.com

20 21 University of Amsterdam (UvA) 3 ICT Research and The University of Amsterdam is one of the largest universities in The Netherlands and has a broad range of research, varying from fi nancial services to theoretical chemistry. Development www.science.uva.nl/ii/home

The Amsterdam region has two universities, two professional universities Currently over 26,000 students are Within the Informatics Institute, and several research institutes. Of these, the University of Amsterdam, the studying at the UvA. research is focused in three labora- tories. These laboratories all have VU University and the CWI (the national research centre for maths and data The university’s computer science their own fi eld of research. The labo- processing) are especially active in the fi eld of ICT research and development. research is concentrated in the ratories of the Informatics Institute Informatics Institute, which is located are the HCS, CSP and ISLA, outlined in Amsterdam Science Park right below. next to SARA, the facility housing the Dutch supercomputer, Huygens.

22 23 Human Computer Studies Laboratory (HCS)

The Human Computer Studies Labo-ratory (HCS, chair: Prof. Dr Simon Jones) addresses the issues of content and user experience raised by the Internet, Web 2.0, and the explosive growth in media-enhanced cellular phones. It addresses these issues holistically, not as specifi c technical challenges seen in isolation, but as an integrated system of users, media, technology and cul- ture. The laboratory has computer scientists, engineers, psychologists and philosophers working together on these topics. Its work is highly regarded worldwide, with many of its staff members having a high profi le internation- ally. Furthermore, there are excellent links with industry via joint appointments with leading organisations such as LogicaCMG. The laboratory recently won fi rst prize in the International Semantic Web Challenge (ISWC), for its work in museum advisor systems.

The laboratory’s long-term record in ontologies and semantic web technolo- gies has been recently supplemented by the arrival of new staff, including the Lab Head Prof. Dr Simon Jones from the MIT Media Lab. It is currently devel- oping new models and exemplars of content creation, analysis and dissemina- tion using hand-held technologies. The lab is now building on its long-running track record in deep technology computer science to advance into the new areas of user-generated content and experience that have been so much a feature of the present decade.

www.hcs.science.uva.nl

The Computing, System Architecture and Programming Laboratory (CSP) Intelligent Systems Laboratorium Amsterdam (ISLA)

The emergence of e-Science or to program them, and how to proc- group is tackling signifi cant prob- that can be used to specify and verify The Intelligent Systems Lab Amster-dam (ISLA, chair: Prof. Dr Arnold cyberinfrastructure is profoundly ess information on them. The labora- lems spanning compilers, computer concurrent communicating or pro- Smeulders) performs fundamental, applied and spin-off research on systems impacting the scale and breadth of tory consists of groups working on architecture and implementations grammed systems. which understand the content of the messages they process, and on systems scientifi c inquiry. By fl exibly combin- computational science, computer as systems on a chip. The research which learn from their data. ing distributed networks, computers, systems architecture, software engi- includes embedded systems, where System and Networking Engineering storage, databases, services and neering and systems and networking. the group looks at study early design The systems and networking engi- At ISLA, hard scientifi c problems are studied from real data with real applica- instruments, disciplines such as ocea- space exploration, as well as general neering research group comprises tions. On that principle, the data and problems for study are obtained from nography, geosciences, high-energy Computational Science purpose computing platforms that optical networking research and web crawls, dynamic feeds, or other large sets of text and video documents, physics and biomedicine are starting The computational science group are called microgrids. generic security and trust in distrib- as well as from search engine logs. Alternatively, it is obtained from networks to take a systems-oriented approach studies the computational problems uted systems. of video cameras, mobile platforms, video archives or stocks of still pictures, to understanding a broad range of in the area of complex dynamic Software Engineering in order to study pictorial content and situation awareness. Finally, data is phenomena. Technologies such as systems. For example, spectacu- The software engineering group has www.science.uva.nl/ii/home.cfm obtained from mobile robots and question answering with the user to study grids provide underlying foundation lar results were obtained recently two research foci. On the one hand, behaviour. for solving these large-scale complex with the development of an HIV-1 it focuses on generating program- Successful applications have been achieved in video search engines, deliver- problems. decision support system (patented ming environments given a formal ing one of the top performers in the international contest for video search in 2006), where information from language defi nition, in particular engines, in the face of competition from the United States and China. The research on (computational) ‘molecule to man’ is integrated that the construction of generic user- ISLA is composed of three groups. Intelligent Autonomous Systems perceive e-Science conducted in the CSP- provides medical doctors with an interfaces and the development of their environment through sensors for goal-directed actions, even in dynamic Laboratory (chair: Prof. Dr Peter automatic system to decide on indi- generic methods for the textual and situations. Information and Language Processing Systems, analyse text using Sloot) is organised along four core vidual-based medicine regimes. graphical representation of structu- the structure of documents to discover and track actionable meaning. Finally, computer science research topics. red objects. On the other hand, the Intelligent Sensory Information Systems create access to the content of digital These cover how to build complex Computer Systems Architecture programme focuses on the develop- images and video. distributed computer systems, how The computer systems architecture ment of a process theory and tools www.science.uva.nl/research/isla

24 25 Andrew Tanenbaum Computer Scientist, VU

“The VU has a tradition in high-quality scientifi c research going back 35 years. The Computer Science Department acquired its fi rst PDP-11 computer back in 1972 (with 16 KB of core memory). This machine was the second computer in the Netherlands to run UNIX. Since that time, the Department’s research has mainly focused on systems-oriented research, although there has always been a small, but excellent, theory group. Among other projects we developed MINIX, which was the direct inspiration and platform Linus Torvalds used to develop Linux. The department has also made signifi cant contributions in artifi cial intelligence, software engineering, and other areas. “Currently, the department has evolved into a thriving research community. Active research areas include operat- ing systems, security, parallel programming, high-speed networking, intrusion detection systems, distributed sys- tems, grids, multi-agent systems, computational intelligence, the semantic Web, ontology engineering, business models for e-commerce, bioinformatics, software engineering, bioinformatics, and formal methods. “This work has led to thousands of published papers, including many best paper awards, dozens of books, and numerous Ph.D. theses, and all are available for download on the VU website.”

A native New Yorker, Andy Tanenbaum is a founding member of the VU’s Computer Science Department, and perhaps the best-known name in Dutch computer science.

There is a clear focus on two inter- mobile and location-aware devices of the computer, these declarative VU University disciplinary fi elds in which the VU has like smart phones get connected to mathematical models have been world-class researchers and ambi- the Internet. supplemented with computer-based The VU has a broad range of research areas, all with their own facilities and all linked tious research programmes. One of Research on this theme covers a models, which provide the oppor- to bachelor’s, master’s and PhD programmes. The VU is known for its cooperations these fi elds is the Internet and Web spectrum of topics related to the tunity for computational analysis technology programme; the other is Internet and Web, ranging from and simulation. A wide variety of with companies and research organisations, and almost 60% of its research is funded the modelling of complex systems. social networks to computer net- modelling techniques have been by external parties. works and covering applications developed in different branches of Internet and Web Technology from consumer markets to business computer science. Some of these are www.cs.vu.nl The Internet has a profound impact and science. The theme addresses numeric, but many modern model- on our daily lives. It drastically fundamental research about com- ling techniques use symbolic compu- changes the way people communi- munication, scalability, and security tation techniques instead. cate and fi nd information, but it also as well as more application-directed The research bundled in this theme affects how companies do business research. concerns a wide variety of model- and how scientists collaborate. ling methods, such as logic-based The World Wide Web is the predomi- Modelling of Complex Systems models, multi-agent models, self- nant application of the Internet, but Constructing models of observed organising and evolving populations many others exist, such as virtual phenomena is the key activity in sci- as a form of modelling, as well as worlds, e-business, peer-to-peer fi le ence. Mathematics has traditionally the use of such modelling methods sharing of music and video, elec- been the language of choice for in a variety of other scientifi c areas, tronic markets, Internet telephony, expressing such models, and such including cognitive science, econom- radio and TV, and virtual laboratories. mathematical models have proven ics, biology, social sciences, and the The Internet and the Web are clearly themselves well suited for analysis, construction and behaviour of soft- here to stay. Many other innovative composition, prediction genera- ware itself. applications will appear, especially as tion, and so on. Since the advent

26 27 CWI Founded in 1946, the Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) is the Dutch national research centre for mathematics and computer science, located at Science Park Amsterdam. www.cwi.nl

CWI is currently providing extra room the strongly interrelated core of models, methods and techniques for talent, in the shape of a new wing mathematics and computer science that allow the mountain of data to be for its building which will be ready in – a unique area of research in the mined, studied and exploited. CWI 2009. Affi liated with the Netherlands Netherlands, in which CWI shows uses its expertise in data manage- Organisation for Scientifi c Research proven success. The results of its ment and learning to play a guiding (NWO), CWI is an incubator for work are of continued importance for role in the development of technol- senior academic researchers in the the economy, from payment systems ogy that will manage the data explo- Netherlands. More than 170 full and cryptography to telecommunica- sion. professors have come from CWI, of tions and the stock market, and from whom 120 are still active. public transport to water manage- Societal Logistics ment. Our society depends on an effi cient With its 160 researchers, CWI lies and fl exible organisation of traffi c at the heart of European research CWI concentrates its efforts on four and transport, commerce and public in mathematics and computer sci- broad, socially-relevant themes: services. Fundamental research can ence. Together with other top insti- earth and life sciences; the data yield principles and methods that can tutes such as INRIA in France and explosion; societal logistics; and be broadly applied to these logistical Max Planck in Germany, it helps software as service – an area that processes. CWI will continue to con- CWI: Research for Science and Business to provide a fi rm foundation for provides a deeper understanding tribute frontier research results that national and European innovation. of problems across the health care, address the bottlenecks in our soci- A better train timetable CWI closely cooperates with com- climate, communication, congestion, ety, from train scheduling to traffi c The 2007 Dutch train timetable, starting in December 2006, has been panies, universities and large tech- security and service domains. fl ows, and from patient waiting lists improved with the help of Spinoza Prize winner Lex Schrijver (CWI and nology institutes. It is a co-founder to communications networks. UvA), and CWI programmer Adri Steenbeek. Designing a timetable for of ERCIM, the European Research Earth and Life Sciences the Dutch rail system – one of the busiest in the world – is highly complex. Consortium for Informatics and In geo- and bio-research, conven- Software as Service Thousands of interrelated constraints have to be satisfi ed, like desired Mathematics, in which 18 national tional experimentation is increas- With the rise of the digital services frequencies, travel and change times, availability of rolling stock and organisations participate. CWI man- ingly being replaced by modelling economy, software is evolving from distances between trains. In the 1990s, CWI developed CADANS, the ages the Benelux Offi ce of the World and simulation. In the coming years, a product to a service. The secure combinatorial algebraic timetable algorithm for Dutch railways, which was Wide Web Consortium (W3C). these methods will be crucial in cell and reliable combination of loosely- extended and improved over the years. With this software, Dutch Rail (NS) CWI concentrates on fundamen- biology and in research into large- coupled distributed applications can compare several aspects quantitatively, and choose a good balance tal questions inspired by practical scale ecological systems. is increasingly important to our between them – as in the 2007 train timetable. problems. Its strengths are the dis- economy, requiring a study of serv- covery and development of new The Data Explosion ice-oriented computing. CWI studies ideas, and the transfer of knowledge How can relevant and compact classical software integration, as well within academia and to Dutch and information be found in a fl ood of as peer-to-peer architectures and European industry. A key focus is data? There is a signifi cant need for semantic web technology.

28 29 SARA is an independent organisa- to a signifi cant number of users, teristic of on-demand ICT services. tion with offi ces in Amsterdam and including both of Amsterdam’s SARA offers a range of on-demand Almere, and collaborations with universities. services; primarily backup and data many partners. SARA has unique – The Network Operations Centre storage (on disk and on tape), but expertise and provides state-of-the- of the high-bandwidth SURFnet6 also connectivity and computing art solutions for consultancy, facilities network. This hybrid network power. The advantage for clients is and management. Its product port- provides networking and lambda that on-demand services can seam- folio consists of: high performance connectivity on demand to edu- lessly match peaks and changes computing and visualisation; facilities cational and research communi- in demand, as well as unexpected and services in supercomputing; data ties. Since the inception of the growth. SARA has established part- SARA: ICT Innovation storage; grid services; visualisation SURFnet network in 1989, SARA nerships with various large suppliers, and virtual reality; and high perform- has been responsible for the tech- such as StorageTek, SUN, EMC2, SARA Computing and Networking Services is an innovative ICT service centre that ance networking, including design, nical and operational management Dell and HP, through which hardware supplies a complete package of high-performance computing, visualisation, installation and management of of this innovative network for can also be supplied on demand. advanced Wide Area Networks; plus Dutch universities, science centres networking, grid services, large-scale data storage and IT infrastructure services. ICT services including housing and and educational institutes. SARA supplies IT services that meet Among SARA’s customers are scientifi c, educational, and government institutions and management for third parties of criti- – The optical Internet exchange the needs of its clients. SARA offers cal infrastructures, systems, appli- NetherLight which is connected excellent co-location facilities at two the business community. cations, on-demand services and to many National Research and data centres, where clients can house connectivity. Education Networks (NRENs). their computer and network equip- www.sara.nl – The Virtual Reality facility the ment. What’s more, SARA is one of SARA’s Unique Selling Points CAVE™. the locations of the Amsterdam Inter- The most eye-catching activities and – SARA is one of the locations of net Exchange (AMS-IX), one of the facilities of SARA are: AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet largest Internet hubs in the world. Exchange), one of the world’s larg- This makes it exceptionally attractive – The Dutch National Supercom- est Internet exchanges. for clients to house their equipment puter Huygens, installed in May at SARA. All our services meet mar- 2007, with a capacity of 60 tera- An important addition to the avail- ket requirements and have a service fl ops. Since 1985 SARA has been able facilities is SARA’s extensive level agreement (SLA), in line with responsible for supercomputer expertise and its consultancy and the well-known ITIL standards, such services for academic users in the support activities. as those for problem management, Netherlands. change management and 24/7 serv- – The national computer cluster Lisa On-demand services ices. that provides computing capacity Flexibility is an important charac-

30 31 Grid Developments cations, e-Science infrastructure and to signifi cantly improve the possibili- Grid services are of high impor- visualisation. ties of high performance computing tance for SARA, both within the (HPC) within Europe. These centres Netherlands and internationally. In addition, SARA works together will develop into supernodes with Grids are networks and middleware with all partners of Science Park a strong regional image. They will that give users, companies and other Amsterdam, making it the e-Science attract large numbers of high-tech organisations access to each other’s support centre of the Netherlands companies that want to be associ- infrastructure. The interest in grid and providing e-Science support to ated with them and profi t from services is increasing as more and all research institutes in the Nether- their advantages. SARA intends more new applications are being lands and worldwide. A condition for to safe-guard the position of the developed. SARA participates in a this is that the current e-Science pos- Netherlands in this scenario, and large number of national and interna- sibilities are converted into products, profi le Amsterdam as one of the tional grid projects. which SARA, as a systems integrator, most important supernodes in the can subsequently offer on the mar- European grid. The Future: e-Science Support ket. Centre SARA is developing from a national Within the EU, various groups are supercomputer centre into an ad- working diligently on the develop- vanced ICT service centre to support ment of a two-tier structure for ‘enhanced science’. It expects to supercomputer centres. This struc- become a supernode in the interna- ture will be made up of a number of tional science grid. SARA partici- European petafl op supercomputer pates in a variety of research and centres integrated within the exist- innovation projects in areas such as ing network of national terafl op network and grid technology appli- supercomputer centres. The aim is

32 33 4 Amsterdam: City of ICT Events

World Congress of Information International Broadcasting Confer- PicNic Cross Media Week Technology (WCIT) ence (IBC) PicNic took place for the fi rst time WCIT is the world’s biggest and most In 2007, the International Broadcast- only in 2006, but its unique set-up important international IT forum. ing Conference (IBC) was held in has already made it an essential The event, which is held every other Amsterdam for the 15th time. Over event for creatives. PicNic features year, brings together world leaders the years, IBC has developed into demonstrations of the newest devel- from business, government and sci- the largest congress of its type: in opments in the fi eld of ICT, media ence. In 2010, the 17th edition of 2007, it had over 45,000 visitors. and games, plus readings, network this Olympic Games for ICT takes It is principally known for its many events, and more. PicNic acts as a place in Amsterdam, with the theme, presentations of spectacular new convergence point for different dis- ‘Challenges of Change’. products and is the number one ciplines, encouraging innovation and broadcasting conference in the the emergence of new ideas. world.

Other Events Amsterdam has hundreds of other congresses, seminars and conferences. In recent years, the city has staged events like the International Conference on Computational Science, the European Grid Conference, Next Web conference and Networks in Bio-informatics, to name only a few.

34 35 5 Amsterdam: Location for Business

The Amsterdam region offers a wide range of locations where companies can set up business. Naturally, for different companies, different factors play a role in selecting the location for an offi ce. Some want to be close to the airport, while others prize proximity to universities, research centres or potential customers, for example. In this section, you’ll fi nd an account of several locations that are perfectly suited for ICT-related companies. In the areas cited here, you’ll generally fi nd all kinds of possibilities – from the ability to rent accomodation at a reasonable price, to having the space to build a new corporate HQ. Figure 9 illustrates a number of the most popular locations for doing business – all of them within 40 km of Amsterdam city and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

In the following pages, you’ll fi nd more information on a number of locations. 4

8 2 7 1

5 6 3

9

Figure 9 1 Amsterdam Zuidas 4 Amsterdam Sloterdijk 7 Almere Business locations in the Amsterdam 2 Science park Amsterdam 5 Hoofddorp 8 Haarlem Area 3 Schiphol Airport 6 Amstelveen 9

36 37 Science Park Amsterdam: ICT, Research and Education

Amsterdam is currently building the Over the next ten years, the Univer- world’s biggest fi bre-optic hub in the largest science park in Europe. A mix sity of Amsterdam, the Netherlands shape of Netherlight, ensure unique of top companies, universities and Organisation for Scientifi c Research facilities in networking and comput- research institutes are already tak- (NWO) and Amsterdam City Council ing services. ing advantage of its unique digital will be working together to develope infrastructure and easy accessibility, Science Park Amsterdam into a truly The area is developing into an envi- as provided by its own purpose-built international knowledge centre. It is ronment characterised by coopera- train station and a separate junction already a place where the coopera- tion and exchange. Science Park on the Amsterdam ring road. Science tion between scientifi c education, Amsterdam’s 500,000 square metres Park Amsterdam really is at the centre research and other knowledge-inten- include offi ce space, laboratories, of Dutch ICT and computer science. sive activity is strongly stimulated educational buildings, a hotel, con- and supported. gress facilities, sports and cultural A number of knowledge institutes amenities, hundreds of houses and already call Science Park Amsterdam Science Park Amsterdam’s lofty am- fl ats, childcare facilities, and even its home. These include the University bitions are entirely realistic, thanks to own train station. In other words, it’s of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science, the presence of the country’s fastest a world of science in a city of inspira- and internationally renowned computer and its high-quality com- tion. Science Park Amsterdam is a research institutes such as NIKHEF, putational and network services. The place where high-quality education, AMOLF and CWI, and SARA. In addi- park and its institutions are already research and entrepreneurship meet tion, over 70 knowledge-intensive world leaders in the fi eld of grid knowledge, talent and ideas: a per- companies have set up shop there, technology. The combination of the fect match. including Clinquest, Crucell, GX, Dutch supercomputer Huygens, plus BioGen idec, Tandberg, SupportNet, continental Europe’s largest inter- PickCell and AMT. net exchange, the AMS-IX, and the www.scienceparkamsterdam.nl

Amsterdam Zuidas: ICT and Business

Amsterdam is building a new, well- fl ows converge neatly on Zuidas: Paris, which has around 3 million connected urban centre called Zuidas, from pedestrian walkways and bicy- square metres. The intended mix in with abundant space for living, work- cle routes to intercity and high-speed percentages of space devoted to liv- ing and leisure. Zuidas is a unique trains, which take just six minutes ing, working and leisure respectively hub on Amsterdam’s southern axis, to transport passengers to Schiphol is 40:40:20. So far, around 450,000 with high-tech offi ces, modern hous- Airport. Amsterdam’s historic city square metres has been realised ing and high-quality facilities, a centre is a ten-minute tramride away. since the fi nalisation of the Zuidas stone’s throw from both the historic In a few years, a new underground Master Plan in 1997. In 2006, the fi rst city centre and Schiphol Airport. metro connection – the North/South housing complexes were produced. Thanks to its mixed character, it’s a Line – will link Zuidas with the centre The coming years will see more lively area. Quality and liveablity are of Amsterdam in even less time. housing and service facilities being major considerations in the develop- This excellent national and interna- built. ment of the Zuidas. The space for tional accessibility is borne out by this urban development is being research into the modes of transport Clearly, the many aspects of devel- found by building on top of the favoured by employees in the area: opment in Zuidas offer excellent existing infrastructure (the A10 ring approximately 50% take public trans- possibilities for companies, whether road, train tracks and metro lines). port, 25% cycle or walk, and only large, small, international or domes- 25% take the car. tic, to base themselves in dynamic, The excellent accessibility of its loca- international surroundings. tion ensures that Zuidas is a ‘most Zuidas boasts more than 2.5 mil- wanted’ location for many businesses lion square metres of real estate seeking a base in the city. All traffi c – compare this with La Défense in www.zuidas.nl

38 39 Almere With swelling numbers of both inhabitants and businesses, Almere is the fastest growing city in the Netherlands. For ICT companies, Almere is an attractive business loca- tion with many competitive advan- tages, including affordable offi ce Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: ICT and Mobility Amsterdam Sloterdijk Amstelveen space and easy accessibility by car. The Amsterdam Sloterdijk business Bordering the south of Amsterdam, In addition, Almere offers excellent park is located in the west of the next to Zuidas, Amstelveen is right facilities in terms of fi bre-optic con- The Business Park located at Amster- ing offi ce and industrial buildings are – Highly qualifi ed, fl exible and city. It is a popular choice for busi- next to Amsterdam’s most prestig- nections, hosting facilities and data dam Airport Schiphol is extremely situated along an attractive business creative workforce. nesses needing plenty of affordable ious offi ce location. For this reason, storage. All of its business areas have popular with ICT companies, espe- boulevard. These come with plenty – Specialised professional services. space. With its own train station it makes an excellent operating base been connected to the city’s fi bre- cially those with a focus on interna- of parking space. – Space for future growth. and a location on the Amsterdam for ICT companies. optic network since 2006. tional operations. – Best European airport. ring road, Sloterdijk has attracted a Expats fi nd Amstelveen a pleasant Almere is just 30km from Amsterdam The park is strategically located All of these factors explain why com- – City of Amsterdam. number of ICT companies, including place to live, and large numbers of and 40km from Schiphol Airport. within a perfect infrastructure that panies such as AT&T, BMC Software, – Excellent logistics performance. KPN, Oracle, Yahoo! Atos Origin and Japanese and Indians in particular makes it the most easily accessible Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, – Competitive property market. Deloitte and Touche. live there. Amstelveen is easily Haarlem business location by train, road and Juniper Networks, Microsoft Bene- reached from Amsterdam by tram, At the west of the city of Amsterdam air in the Netherlands – and probably lux, Nortel Networks and UPC Hoofddorp metro or car. Companies like Canon, en right next to the Amsterdam Air- in the world. Thanks to a wide range Europe have chosen to be based in www.aaarea.nl With its spacious business park, Ricoh, Fortis, and LogicaCMG are port Schiphol, Haarlem is very popu- of facilities, from hotel and catering the Schiphol Area. Hoofddorp offers excellent value for based in Amstelveen. lar for companies working in graph- services to a supermarket, shops and money as an offi ce location. Its ics, design and ICT-services. With parking space, its offi ce premises For companies based at Schiphol, accessibility is also extremely good, Hilversum picturesque facades including a lot meet every imaginable business the following emerged as the most thanks to its location near Amster- Hilversum is the centre of the Dutch of monuments in the city center and need. frequently cited reasons for choosing dam Airport Schiphol and the television industry. The majority of wide area’s with industry and offi ces this location: business park’s own train station. Dutch broadcasting companies, in the east, the Waarderpolder, The result is a functional and spa- – Outstanding technical infrastruc- Hoofddorp is a logical operating large studios and TV-related com- Haarlem offers a wide range of offi ce cious business park with its own spe- ture. base for many companies, including panies have their offi ces in this city. locations. This combi-ned with the cial atmosphere. The buildings have – Strategic locations near key mar- TNT, LogicaCMG, Thomas Cook and Hilversum is easily accessible by train high educated inhabitants makes magnifi cent panoramic views of the kets and logistics networks. INHOLLAND college. and car, and is only 30 minutes from Haarlem a popular place for interna- airport runways, and new, freestand- – Favourable business climate. Amsterdam. tional and national companies.

40 41 6 More Information

Throughout this brochure are a number of links to sites you can visit to fi nd further information about the city, doing business here, and (especially) ICT companies, facilities and infrastructure. More information about Amsterdam is available on the Internet at www.iamsterdam.nl. If you have any questions regarding setting up business in the Amsterdam Area, then the Amsterdam Foreign Investment Offi ce can help. If you want to know more about ICT-specifi c activities in the region, then please contact the Amsterdam Innovation Motor.

Contact Points and Further Information Expats For Amsterdam, expats are more Amsterdam Foreign Investment Amsterdam Innovation Motor than just a useful extra: they form an Offi ce P.O.Box 2852 indispensable economic driver for P.O.Box 2133 1000 CW Amsterdam the city and are its most important 1000 CC Amsterdam The Netherlands ambassadors. Now, when the econ- The Netherlands omy is becoming increasingly inter- T +31 20 5241120 national, and the intensity of global T +31 20 552 35 36 F +31 20 5241134 economic processes increases, it is F +31 20 552 28 60 [email protected] especially important that everyone afi [email protected] www.aimsterdam.nl feels at home in Amsterdam. www.afi o.amsterdam.nl For this reason, Amsterdam will open a special Expat Centre in 2008. At the centre you can arrange every- Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam thing necessary for staying in Amster- De Ruyterkade 5 dam, quickly and easily. The Expat 1013 AA Amsterdam Centre offers a range of city council T +31 20 531 46 19 services to expats, in coorporation F +31 20 531 46 98 with the immigration service. [email protected]/ [email protected] www.kvk.nl

42 43 Colophon

AIM Amsterdam Innovation Motor P.O.Box 2852 1000 CW Amsterdam T +31 20 524 1120 [email protected] www.AIMsterdam.nl

With thanks to Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam, O+S Text: AIM, with Arnold Korporaal Photos: Alette Berends, Science Park Amsterdam, Amsterdam City Council, SADC, Nikhef, Elsbeth Tijssen English version: Jane Szita Design: Colombo, Amsterdam

October 2007

Copy or quote from this edition is allowed when consulted previously.

AIM Amsterdam Innovation Motor

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